Multimedia-PCs » mp3

Zune HD Gets a Price Drop

Jeremy Jones — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 05:01:03 +0000

Looks like Amazon is giving a little price break on the Zune HD models. It’s $30 to $40 off depending on model. While I haven’t had the luxury of using the new Zunes, wish I could, I have heard many good things about them. If you’re in the market for a MP3 player you can save some money.

Zune HD to Get XviD

Jeremy Jones — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:51:34 +0000

The Zune HD is getting a firmware update that will bring ZviD support to the device. You can also display the XviD content through the dock to your TV. It is unlikely that DivX will make it because of proprietary restrictions. The firmware update will also bring smart DJ features like the computer software.

Let hope they keep coming out with updates to add functionality and features. The Zune HD is still lacking over the iPod Touch and not just in the apps department. The Zune HD still doesn’t have WPA2 support which lots of places use, including the University I work at.

(via SlashGear)

Zune HD vs iPod Touch

Jeremy Jones — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:48:43 +0000

With the Zune HD launch today it was only a matter of time before someone put the two head to head to see which is better. Digital Trends has a nice comparison of the two. The winner after the break down is Microsoft’s Zune HD. I’m not surprised by the outcome. The Zune HD has a lot to offer that Apple’s iPod Touch can’t compete with. The only reason why we got a price drop is because of the Zune HD. The Zune offers a better screen which is a 3.3″ OLED. One of the coolest features is that it will output video to your TV at 720p.

Even though the Zune HD is a solid player it has a tough road ahead. What it doesn’t have is the iTunes app store. You have a fancy UI and a beautiful screen but if you don’t have the apps your device will fail. These devices aren’t just about playing MP3s and some video anymore.

Zune HD Promotional Video Shows 3D Gaming

Jeremy Jones — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 01:24:24 +0000

The promotional video above shows the Zune HD playing Forza 3. It’s just a quick glimpse but it’s getting people exited that games might launch soon. With the launch just a few days away I’m sure we will find out soon.

(via Gizmodo)

Zune HD Available for Pre-Order

Jeremy Jones — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:25:07 +0000

I posted about the Zune HD pricing and release date a couple of days ago. Well today you can pre-order through Amazon. The price is $220 for the 16GB model and $290 for the 32GB model. Not bad prices and a really nice UI. Release date is September 15th.

Zune HD Gets Pricing and Release Date

Jeremy Jones — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 13:10:39 +0000

Best Buy inventory list the Zune HD 16GB for $220 and the 32GB for $290. Not bad on the prices. The release date is September 8th which is probably why new information is coming out. CNet also has a hands-on with the Zune HD web browser. There was also screen shots that showed up on Amazon for pre-order but when I went it wasn’t there anymore. They do have a sign-up page to be notified when it’s available. I’m sure in the next week or so there will be official reviews of the Zune HD being posted.

UPDATE: Looks like it’s going to be September 15th and not the 8th like I stated above.

UPDATE**: Now available for Pre-Order.

Zunes Stop All over the World

Jeremy Jones — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:59:59 +0000

Yesterday Zune 30GB owners from all over reported that their zunes stopped working. There is now a fix but it was a time issue in the code of the Zune. Since it was a leap year they all stopped working. The fix is to drain the battery and wait until today at noon GMT. It should start working again. I’m sure if you have a Zune 30GB that you already know about this but this is something that shouldn’t happen. Especially when the fix is to wait for an entire day. I sure hope Microsoft does something nice for the Zune 30GB owners. They are already running a uphill battle against the iPod the last thing you want is to piss the people off that actually bought your MP3 player.

How-To: Switch from iTunes DRM to MP3

Jeremy Jones — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 02:57:00 +0000

I posted here about leaving iTunes to free my music from Apple’s shackles. I have spent this weekend transferring, deleting and converting my music. Below I will describe the steps I used to switch from Apple’s DRM tracks to having my entire library in MP3 form. Please backup your music files before following the steps below.

Update: I used iTunes version 7.3.2.6. I’m not sure how other version of iTunes will work.

1. The first step was to get my music from my MacBook Pro to my Windows desktop. The reason for this is that the program I wanted to use, Hymn Project, only works on Windows. I transferred all my music to my 500GB NAS drive. Then from the NAS transferred it to my Windows machine.

2. I know needed to import everything into iTunes. I took awhile since I had 6,400 songs.

3. Once everything was in iTunes I launched myFairTunes. myFairTunes is pretty easy to use program. I left the default settings, which creates a .m4a file. I’ll explain later why you want to leave it as a .m4a file and not use myFairTunes to convert it to a MP3.

4. You will notice in iTunes that you have a lot more songs than you started with. The reason is you have a .m4p (protected file) and a .m4a (unprotected file) from the same song. We need to remove all of those protected files before we start converting to MP3. To remove the .m4p files, open up Windows search. Type *.m4p and have it search your music directory. This will output all the .m4p songs. Just highlight them all and hit delete.

5. Now that you have all of your protected tracks out of the way you can really stop if you want too. There are a lot of players out there that will play .m4a files or you can still use iTunes if you want. But I didn’t want my music to work with some players, I wanted them to work with all players. So proceed to step 6 if you want your files in MP3 form.

6. We now have all protected files converted to .m4a. Now we will use iTunes to convert all of those tracks to MP3. One way you do this is right click on a song and click convert to MP3. **Note: you need to make sure that under preferences, advance, importing you have MP3 selected.** The best way to convert your .m4a files to MP3 is to create a smart playlist. You will want to create a new smart playlist and it should say Kind is AAC Audio File. There is a screen shot below to make it easier for people.

Once you have your new smart playlist created it will add all .m4a files to the playlist. Now you can select all, right click and convert to mp3. The reason why I didn’t use myFairTunes to convert the tracks to MP3 is myFairTunes would have to convert to .m4p and then iTunes would come in and convert to MP3. It is an extremely long process that would eventually lock up my machine. And I feel like my machine is decent. By splitting it into two separate steps it worked fine.

7. Now you will have a MP3 version and a .m4a version of a song. You need to go to Windows search and search your music directory for *.m4a. Once the result are shown highlight them and delete.

8. Now you have all of your music in MP3 format.

The above steps seem like a lot but it’s really not that bad. It did take most of the weekend to complete but that’s because I have a good size library that needed converted. And most of the time was my machine converting and I just used my laptop. If you have questions about the process let me know in the comments.

**I know that by converting to MP3 there was a loss of sound quality. I was willing to give up some sound quality to have a format that was compatible with every software and hardware player available. If you have a better way of doing this please let me know.

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The new Zune version 1 and 2

Jeremy Jones — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 00:35:00 +0000

http://www.last100.com/2007/10/04/zune-2-five-things-microsoft-did-right/

The link above is to last100 and a post about the 5 things Microsoft did right with the zune. I agree with them on the 5 things and I will talk a little more about them below.

I wanted to start out by saying that I understand that the new Zune isn’t much different than version one. But the changes they made reflect some of the changes Zune users wanted. A company that is willing to change things to make users happy is a good thing. One other good thing Microsoft did, and why I titled the post like I did, is that there will be a firmware update for the version 1′s that provide the same features as the new Zunes. So if you have a version 1 it will be like getting a new device. If Microsoft would have changed the Zune completely with entirely new hardware set they wouldn’t have been able to offer that to version 1 owners (early adopters). That was a good move on Microsoft’s part. Let’s get onto the new features.

1. Wifi music syncing: This gives a little more functionality out of that wifi card. You can sync the zune over a wireless network. Another addition is songs you pass to other zunes don’t expire after 3 days. You only get to play it 3 times but it could be 3 times in a year. Also if you receive a song you can send it to someone else. This isn’t a big feature yet because most people have ipods, but if zunes become more popular I could see this being used, even by myself.

2. Support for audio/video podcasts: This is long over due. I feel uncomfortable listening to Ian Dixon’s Media Center Show on my ipod.

3. Windows Media Center video recording support: Finally, the Zune and Media Center can be friends on their own. This was possible with third party programs but when you add an additional program it isn’t easy. I’m sure this was a feature Microsoft added after listening to the users.

4. Social Networking: Well this feature from what I read doesn’t appeal to me that much. You get a “Zune Card” and the website will display what song you are listening to. It’s a website around the “Welcome to the Social”. There are enough social networking sites out there that I can’t keep up with. I don’t really need another one to show what song I am listening to. Microsoft did say that eventually there will be a widget for other social networking sites to display the song information. What they should have done is created the website that lets you create the widget and left it at that.

5. Backward-compatible firmware update: I talked about this above. Thanks Microsoft from all version 1 zune owneres. I don’t own a Zune but I’m sure they people that do appreciate you thinking of them.

I think the Zune has potential to be a great MP3 player. If Microsoft keeps listening to the users and adding features I’m sure it will grow in popularity. I’m really considering buying a Zune instead of a new ipod. Plus the Zune marketplace is going to go DRM-free. And after dealing with Apple’s DRM I’m ready to move on.

Multimedia-PCs » mp3

Zune HD Gets a Price Drop

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Zune HD to Get XviD

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Zune HD vs iPod Touch

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Zune HD Promotional Video Shows 3D Gaming

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Zune HD Available for Pre-Order

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Zune HD Gets Pricing and Release Date

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Zunes Stop All over the World

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How-To: Switch from iTunes DRM to MP3

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The new Zune version 1 and 2

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